DHCP
Welcome Back Pat, and thanks for the early report!
JW
The Need to Automate and Centralize IP Administration
TCP/IP is the most important, standard, enterprise-wide network protocol used today. It was endorsed by the Internet Engineering Task Force as appropriate for server, client and internetworking applications. As a result of the rapidly growing use of the Internet,
TCP/IP will be the dominant networking protocol by the middle of 1996.
Until now, tedious, time consuming systems administration was required whenever devices were added to, or moved on, a TCP/IP network. Each networked machine needs to be assigned a unique IP address. In addition, every machine needs to know various other information -- its host name and network domain name, the addresses of network
servers and gateways, and its subnet mask. In the past, this information was entered locally on every machine, requiring a personal visit from a systems administrator to do so.
Any time a machine moved, as happens frequently in companies that are growing or reorganization, the administrator must re-do the configuration. This process becomes burdensome for administrators of large networks.
If users enter network configurations themselves, the consequences can be disastrous. In a network, the IP address identifies the computer or peripheral to other units in the same environment. When users have control over their own IP configurations, they may accidentally take someone else's IP address and bring the entire network down. The
solution is centralized IP administration.
JOIN is a powerful and easy to use implementation of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) that automates and centralizes IP administration. This TCP/IP address management solution can save system administrators in large organizations (with over 100 network nodes) hundreds of hours of mundane administration each year and ensure consistent, accurate address management by:
Automatically assigning IP addresses to client machines
Allowing administrators to manage IP addresses centrally from their desktops
Automatically configuring multiple machines according to administrator-defined templates Dynamically updating NIS and NIS+ naming services
Flexibility
We understand that every network is different and every administrator faces unique situations. JOIN was built with the flexibility to accommodate different needs.
Need to configure various groups of machines differently?
No problem; set up any number of templates, each of which sets the configuration parameters by network, subnet, or uniquely defined group.
Need to statically assign certain addresses (like routers and hubs)?
No problem; JOIN offers static addressing.
Need to allow portables to log on and off seamlessly?
No problem; portables can obtain IP addresses dynamically.
Further flexibility is available through "vendor-specific options", which allow administrators to tailor JOIN by adding fields of information they may want to capture from specific vendors' machines (such as printers or routers).
Security
Some administrators may not want IP addresses assigned automatically without the assurance that the machine requesting an address is legitimate. JOIN offers the security option of entering the MAC addresses of machines which may receive IP addresses.
Thus, only pre-designated machines will automatically receive IP addresses when they join the network or when they move to a new network location.
For more info see :http://web.syr.edu/~jmwobus/comfaqs/dhcp.faq.html#widxx |
